Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain looks to be MGS at its best. By the time the fifth title in a series rolls around, fans should know what to expect. There’s always the chance that with such a long running series that changes will be made for the sake of it and potentially not for the better. Thankfully, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a well-oiled machine. It’s by no means the wheel reinvented, but who would want that? The Phantom Pain is well polished and introduces a few new mechanics to an already stellar franchise bringing it into the current generation of gaming.
The absolute best thing about The Phantom Pain is the Fulton system. You can send people, objects and animals, including elephant or above, back to Mother Base. Sure, the game looks stunning. Of course the gameplay is amazing and what’s Metal Gear without an albeit insane narrative.
More importantly, who cares about any of that stuff when you can attach a parachute to a sheep and send it flying into the air for your amusement. While sending a sheep into the air is hilarious, it does serve a purpose. By sending much needed materials back to Mother Base you can perform upgrades which help Snake in the field. But mostly it’s hilarious. I was sending things back to base every chance I got… until I ran out of Fulton parachutes. Giggling uncontrollably in a room full of adults may be a little embarrassing, but I just couldn’t help myself.
Mother Base, a brand new element in the series, is Snake’s command centre in Phantom Pain. From there, you can access the game’s options. Get to the chopper and head out on a mission. Work on equipping your forward operating base for impending attacks or count your sheep and have a nap. Phantom Pain allows you to drop into missions where you want. This can be raided by other players online so you’ll want to do your best to get plenty of stuff to kit it out with. I can only assume my base will be full, wall to wall with sheep like lambs to the slaughter for players attacking me.
When you come across a small base full of enemies on route to your mission, the decision on what you do is yours. You can sneak on in and take them out, be a little more aggressive or just walk around the base entirely. Hell if you don’t want to walk around you can just jump on your horse and gallop through the problem before anyone realises what’s going on. Or if you want to be stealthy on your horse snake can slide ninety degrees around his mount and the goons just assume it’s a horse without a rider.
It’s been long time coming but Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is set to be one of the strongest titles in the series. The title will launch on September 1st for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 and September 15 for windows PC.
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